This is a decrease from the number of employees announced with positive test results on May 15.

Posted: May 20, 2020 3:56 PM

Updated: May 21, 2020 12:43 PM

Posted By: Josh Rayburn

Tiffin Motor Homes said Wednesday that six employees at its Main Production Plant and one employee at its Class A Service Facility, both located in Red Bay, have tested positive for coronavirus.

This is a decrease from the number of employees announced with positive test results on May 15. (Read about that here)

“After we investigated, we tested every person the infected employees came into contact with,” said Tony Riley, chief legal officer of Tiffin Motor Homes. “We ended up with six new cases rather than the eight we had initially confirmed.

“After the tests we conducted onsite indicated a positive result here, we followed these positive results up with the swab test at a local clinic. We found that two employees who initially tested positive were negative now.”

Riley said the company used the COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette (antibody test) for onsite tests. The COVID-19 Nasopharyngeal Swab test was used for follow-up confirmations, he said.

Red Bay is located in Franklin County, which has seen a large increase in the number of coronavirus cases in recent days. As of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Alabama Department of Public Health reports 375 confirmed cases of coronavirus and five deaths from the virus.

The company also said one employee at the Class C Production Plant in Winfield and one employee at the Class A Paint Facility in Belmont, Miss., also tested positive for coronavirus.

In a news release, the company added:

“Tiffin Motor Homes operates five manufacturing facilities, employing, as of this week, 1388 people (this number does not include the 31 employees who are on medical furlough due to having underlying health issues that place them at increased risk, or the 325 we have laid off because of a reduction in production due to the economic impact of COVID-19).

“In the past week, after discovering that we had two employees who reported for work with knowledge that they may have the virus (both of them sought to conceal this information and both were positive), we tested 134 employees at our main production facility in Red Bay. Earlier we had tested 46 employees at our other locations for various reasons. We have conducted, or have had third parties conduct, a total 180 tests.

“We remain committed to maintaining a proactive approach to both preventative measures and toward responding to potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus. It is our intent to continue keeping our employees, customers and our communities informed as we address this situation on a daily basis.”